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This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Messiah Yeshua. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Messiah Yeshua, our God and Savior.
May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Yeshua our Lord.
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
That’s where we left off. We continue with verse 4: And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
God has given us great and excellent promises – not because of anything we deserve or have earned, but because of His glory and excellence – that is, because of who He. Flowing from God’s glorious and morally perfect character are “great and precious promises.”
What are some of these promises?
The forgiveness of all of our sins, reconciliation with God, being in a close personal relationship with Him, being born again, receiving a new nature, the Spirit of God living in us and transforming us and empowering us to overcome sin, empowering us to obey God, the promises of resurrection and eternal life, and an everlasting inheritance in God’s kingdom.
He has given us great promises.
These promises are great because are given by God, who is great.
These promises are great because they were made possible because of the life, death and resurrection of the greatest man who ever lived – the unique God-Man – Yeshua.
These promises are great because of their scope and their power. They extend from this life into eternity. They deal with humanity’s greatest problems – sin, the sin nature, being controlled by Satan and the demons, death – and they promise a great outcome – complete restoration and victory. No greater promises could be made because no greater blessings could be given.
He has given us great and precious promises.
They are precious because of their cost. They were purchased with the precious blood of the Son of God.
They are precious because of their source. They come from the faithful and unchanging God, who can’t lie and always keeps His promises.
They are precious because of their permanence. Earthly promises disappoint or fail, but God’s promises will never disappoint and will last forever.
They are precious because of their power. These promises don’t just inform us – they strengthen our precious faith and transform us into the likeness of Messiah.
These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
God promises that our old nature, the nature that all of us are born with, a nature that is sinful, corrupt, in a state of perpetual rebellion against God, a nature that can’t please God and won’t obey God – will be replace with a new divine nature, a nature that is like God’s nature.
God promises that we will be born again, have a new spirit, a new heart, a new mind, and that the Spirit of God will live in us and teach us and guide us and transform us.
This world is spoiled, ruined, sinful – corrupt. God promises that we will escape the world’s corruption. We will be able to free ourselves from the world’s corruption, not participate in the corruption, not share this corrupt world’s destruction. We will be able to to live for God – not for corrupt desires, not for a corrupt world.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. What promises? The promise of the forgiveness of all of our sins, reconciliation with God, being in a close personal relationship with Him, being born again, receiving a new nature, the gift of the Holy Spirit living in us who transforms us and empowers us to overcome sin, empowers us to live for God, the promises of resurrection life and an eternal inheritance in God’s kingdom.
God has done His part. God has provided us with everything we need to live a successful life. God supplies great and precious promises that enable us to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires – but we are responsible to respond to those promises with every effort.
How do we make every effort to respond to God’s promises?
By believing them, by trusting them, by reminding ourselves of them, by encouraging ourselves with them.
By reminding ourselves of the character of God – that He is faithful and true, that if He makes a promise, He will keep it.
By being obedient, not disobedient. Sin causes us to lose sight of God and the promises He gave us. They are still true, but our disobedience obscures them from our view.
By being filled with the Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, God’s promises become alive, real, precious.
By practicing the spiritual disciplines: reading the Word of God and praying every day, being involved with the community of the Lord’s people regularly. Doing these things helps us hold onto God’s promises.
And, Peter tells us that we should be doing other things too. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
Supplement your faith. Faith is knowing something without seeing something. The faithful know God exists without ever having seen Him. Faith is also trusting God, being confident in who He is, believing what He said, and trusting in the reliability of His Word.
Faith is more than mere intellectual belief. Faith involves being faithful. We don’t have real faith if we aren’t faithful, if we aren’t loyal to God.
Faith is a gift from God. Faith is precious. Faith is wonderful. Faith is essential to salvation. We are saved by faith. Faith begins our walk with God, and faith sustains our walk with God.
Lord God, bless us with faith and help us grow in faith!
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence. Moral excellence is moral goodness, virtue, noble character.
Moral excellence begins with obedience in the small things. Good character is not formed in dramatic moments but in small, daily decisions. If we are careless in small matters, we should not be surprised when we struggle in greater ones.
Moral excellence is cultivated by training our minds. What we think about shapes who we become. Scripture, truth, and what is noble and pure strengthen good character.
Moral excellence grows when we choose to do what is right even though it is hard. Virtue is established when obedience costs us, when doing what is right is inconvenient, unpopular, or uncomfortable.
Supplement your moral excellence with knowledge. Knowledge is spiritual knowledge – understanding God, God’s Word and God’s ways. Knowledge about God and His Word and His ways deepens our understanding of God and God’s will and protects us from deception. As we grow in knowledge, we learn how to live skillfully and faithfully in a dark, dangerous, deadly, deceptive, fallen world that is satanically controlled and in rebellion against God and under a curse.
Supplement your knowledge with self-control. Self-control is the ability to control our thoughts, emotions, actions, speech, desires. We are not able to control ourselves by willpower alone. Self-control is one of the fruits, one of the results, of the Spirit of God living in us and filling us. When we are filled with the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, close to God, it’s so much easier to say “no” to sinful desires and impulsive behaviors and “yes” to obedience and disciplined living.
Supplement your self-control with patient endurance. Spiritual growth occurs slowly and with suffering. We need patient endurance, perseverance, to remain faithful under stress, pressure, trials, difficulties, hardships and pain.
We grow in patient endurance by understanding that God uses suffering to refine us and improve our character.
We grow in patient endurance by remaining faithful under pressure, and allowing trials to refine our character and deepen our faith.
Supplement your patient endurance with godliness. Godliness is a life that’s characterized by reverence for God. It comes from an awareness of God’s reality that influences every aspect of our behavior. Godliness isn’t outward religiosity, but inward devotion to the living God. Godliness means a mind and heart aligned with God’s priorities, values, and purposes.
A godly life honors God not just at religious times like Shabbat and holidays, but in ordinary every day life. We grow in godliness by interacting with the Word of God, prayer, worship, obedience, humility.
Supplement your godliness with brotherly affection. Brotherly affection is family-like love for our fellow believers. This love reflects the truth that our Heavenly Father makes us His sons and daughters and unites us into one great family. And our Father requires us to care for one another like members of a family. Brotherly affection includes kindness, loyalty, patience, forgiveness, and shared concern within the community of Messiah. Brotherly affection strengthens the community of believers.
Supplement your brotherly affection with love for everyone. Love for everyone is love that extends beyond our fellow believers to neighbors, strangers, the undeserving, the unlovable, and even our enemies. This kind of love cares for others, wants what is best for others and seeks the good of others. If we are truly born again, and have a new, godly nature, a nature like God’s nature, and the Spirit is living in us and filling us – we will love others.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
God has provided us with everything we need to live a productive and useful life that’s worthy of Him. God does His part. We must do our part. The more we do our part, the harder we work, the more we grow in these qualities, the better we will know God and the more fruitful, useful, effective, and productive we will be.
But when we don’t work hard, and neglect this growth, Peter lets us know that we are shortsighted, blind, forgetting that we have been bought with a price, forgetting that we are to serve God and accomplish His purposes, forgetting that we have been saved to be dead to sin and alive to righteous, holy living.
May we never forget that we have been saved, cleansed, redeemed, bought with a high price – and the proper response is to give ourselves fully to God, exert effort, grow, and give Him our time, talents and treasures, and love Him will all of our mind, heart, soul and strength.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your glory and excellence, and for giving us everything we need for a godly life. Thank You for Your great and precious promises – given by Your grace, purchased at great cost. Thank You for forgiving our sins, reconciling us to Yourself, giving us new life, and placing Your Spirit within us to transform and empower us. Help us never forget that we have been cleansed, redeemed, and called to share in Your divine nature. Strengthen our faith, and help us respond with every effort so we grow moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love for all. Keep us from spiritual blindness, and make us fruitful, useful, and faithful to You and Your Son.